THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Ronald Reagan was swept into office on promises to cut taxes, strengthen the military, and shrink government.
Gov. George F. Allen was swept into office on promises to cut taxes, build prisons and shrink government.
For good reasons, the two often are compared.
In promises, they were practically identical.
In practice, however, Governor Allen is proving radically different from the revered former president.
Once in office, Reagan went two for thee: He cut taxes and strengthened the military, while watching government growth continue unabated. Flashing a credit card the size of the Gobi desert, he bestowed government benefits as though a Democrat, while alarming liberals with threats of social-spending cutbacks.
Needless to say, he was popular. For the mind-numbing annual federal deficits, he had Democrats to blame. He could shrug and say, ``I tried to cut government; they wouldn't let me.'' After eight years as president, he departed complaining that government was too big.
Now in office, Allen is working hard to cut taxes, strengthen the military and shrink government - he aspires to go three for three. He seems intent on keeping every promise and being the same person in office that he was on the campaign trail.
Keeping his promises is a novel approach, but will it prove popular? The question arises, because already his popularity ratings are dropping. In a survey of 809 registered voters conducted Jan. 16-18, 48 percent judged him to be doing an excellent or good job. After enjoying an approval rating of 57 percent in March and 53 percent in September, he has slipped below the halfway mark, with his graph approval line clearly slanted south.
Allen is what voters said they wanted. He does not look at a dollar bill the way politicians traditionally have - as an opportunity to do something for constituents that they might appreciate. When he sees a dollar bill, he considers whether it would do the taxpayer more good in the taxpayer's pocket or in a government program supposedly serving the taxpayer. He favors the taxpayer's pocket.
He has proposed slashing taxes $2.1 billion over five years, cutting spending $403 million next year, and spending $2 billion in prison construction over 10 years. He is the real deal.
And what do voters think?
The poll showing Allen's popularity waning also shows that almost three-quarters of voters opposed Allen's plans to reduce funding for mental-health facilities, senior-care facilities and local police departments. Almost two-thirds opposed eliminating Medicaid coverage for low-income teenagers.
Clearly, Allen has two strikes against him.
One, he is not governor of New Jersey or some such liberal state that has mismanaged money. After Douglas Wilder, the previous governor, slashed and burned to get Virginia through tough times without raising taxes, Allen was left with few easy targets. To cut, Allen has to go for muscle, or at least for programs that many constituents consider muscle. He is a weight-loss instructor whose students weigh 119 pounds apiece.
Strike two, Allen may get what he wants. While Democrats controlled Congress, Reagan could talk of cuts, confident he wouldn't get them. But if Virginia Republicans gain control of both houses this fall, Allen will receive every spending reduction he seeks. All credit and all blame will be his.
In short, Allen is trying to do, and probably will do, what the voters apparently told him to do.
And he may pay dearly at the polls.
Or perhaps the Democrats will thwart him and he'll leave office incredibly popular - the man who, like Reagan, at least tried to shrink government. by CNB